Sunshine In The Rain

It's rainy and cold and it will most likely all blow past by tomorrow, but in the shivering of today, enjoy some bright sunshine from the other day ...

Brought to you by the Venice Art Walls and Dschianojr ... take a gander and feel your heart warm up and your spirits lift.

The sun will be back tomorrow.

Viva Venice! Viva Mexico!

The Venice Art Walls are at it again ... reflecting what's going on around us and making the social commentary that goes along with it. This weekend's graffiti news brought a piece that celebrates Venice, celebrates Mexico, and condemns Trump. Perfecto.

I'm on a Mexico trip at the moment (and will be literally this weekend) and it's really been on my mind a lot since the KRS-One show I went to a couple of weeks ago. That prophet said that we were standing on Mexico ... as this art piece (by I'm not sure because I can't make out that tag?) also states. Then we went outside and the hot dog cart ladies took off running from the cops because they were scared of ICE. Then there was this anti-Trump Wall banner hanging on Venice Boulevard. Then there was another checkpoint on Lincoln over the weekend that gets everyone scared about ICE more than DUI's. Then I went to see Rodrigo y Gabriela and absolutely swooned over the beautiful music being made by these Mexican treasures.

You can go anywhere in Los Angeles - or California as a whole, really - and see all the contributions made daily to our lives and economy by our Mexican friends. Did you ever see A Day Without A Mexican? Well, you should. L.A. would literally grind to a halt without them. They should be appreciated and thanked, not persecuted. It's ridiculous, and sad. So, I'm going to go celebrate a new year with all the color and flavor of a Mexican fiesta, and let them all know that we've got their backs - and that we're not all bad. Thank you to the Venice Art Walls artists, for always keeping it on the real real.

Viva Mexico! Viva Venice!

Help Every Youth Succeed

I like to regularly check out what's happening down at the Venice Art Walls, because very often what you see there is a reflection of current events, done in a fresh way. The news via art.

A lot of the time it's a big "Venice" or someone's personal tag style stuff, but often there is very conscious thought, as I saw this morning. HELP EVERY YOUTH SUCCEED. That really is the answer to our collective future. ALL our kids are precious. I saw Spike Lee's excellent MUST SEE Blackkklansman last night (HOLY. MOLY.), and the students have a chant ... "All Power to ALL the People!" which I feel is the mantra for all time - but especially these times.

When you have an idiot multi-millionaire like Betsy Devos as the Secretary of Education doing nothing for our youth, and a self-made man like LeBron James giving everything to our youth, you know that things simply MUST change ... from the top down to the bottom up. And soon, or this nice experiment in Democracy called The United States Of America will ultimately fail. Hate. Greed. Love. Generosity. It all starts when you're a kid. It's all taught. And it takes a village.

Teach your children well. Help every youth succeed.

Have A Real Venice Weekend!

I've been running around all over the place and not had as much time to either really enjoy or write about Venice as much the past few weeks. So, it was with extra anticipation and enthusiasm that I finally got to enjoy a fully Venice weekend last week. And I'm about to do it all over again ...

Both weekend days were beach days, though Saturday was a lot cloudier than Sunday. No matter, as you still get that Vitamin D through the haze, and it was plenty warm enough. With a TON going on. There was a Venice Festival (don't know who put that on, but there were booths and food and live music - by the likes of Venice's own Venice's Mark Lennon and John Vester - and a bunch of fun and good vibes). There was a skate contest at the skatepark (I got there when it seemed to be for the 50+ age group still getting it!).

Walking to the beach, I noticed a perfectly Venice patio, all colorful and inviting, with just enough kitsch to make it feel like groovy old Venice.

I ran into people I knew all both days, which is always the best part about a great day in Venice. I had the breakfast burrito from Hinano's for breakfast on the beach. I swam in the Pacific, whose water has finally warmed up enough to make it a delight, with almost zero easing in time. Especially Sunday, when the sun was all the way out and it REALLY felt like Summer.

While on my human rotisserie beach blanket, I used my new koozie from the funeral of my dearest friends' dad's (Larry Hendrickson) funeral (funeral merch!), and thought about its wording ... "The PriZe is worth the PriCe." That is almost always true, and it could apply to so many situations, but I was thinking of Venice ... and how hard it is to still live here, with the ridiculous rents, the annoying Bird/Lime users, the BUBs, the traffic, the scenester restaurants, people who walk down Abbot Kinney like it's the airport, all slow and haphazardly, the corporate chain stores, the line at Salt & Straw, the "New Venice" people that warrant constant eye rolls, sad gentrification, etc ...

... but then you see your pals, and watch the skaters, and swim in the Pacific, and find out there's a new store for old school rollerskates in town (Moxi Rollerskates on Main Street), and you get that the Venice Vibe is still very much alive and well. As are the people that love it and want to keep it cool. I know, because I saw a ton of them last weekend. And I hope to see even more on this one ... starting very soon.

So, get out there and enjoy all the Venice you can - and get funky. Wear a costume. Paint a mural on your house. Go for a rollerskate. Jump in that awesome water. High five an O.G. Be happy ... because Real Venice is still here for your enjoyment. Dig that.

Venice Graffstone - The Art and Jewelry Of Susan Rich

I've been trying to get together with Susan Rich for ages to talk about her supercool Venice Graffstone jewelry made from pieces of the Venice Art Walls (!), and we just finally had the chance to sit down and talk about it all. Rich was born in Vermont, and raised in Florida, with a stint in D.C. as a body builder (!) and 80's aerobics instructor (think leg warmers) and working at a credit union at the Pentagon, and all sorts of different adventures, before coming out west to attend Pepperdine. That was a springboard to get her to UCLA Film School, where she was top of her class, and soon working as a director's assistant.

A boyfriend got her to move up North, but that wasn't happening, and he said he'd only move back down to L.A. if they moved to Venice (my kind of dude), so that is where Rich has been ever since - even though she did think it was sketchy at first. It was. She lives in the same historical apartment (that they're trying to officially make historical so greedy developers don't ever get their mitts on it) near Windward Circle (but not with the same dude). "Venice takes you over and has a story for you to live out," said Rich by way of introducing her own Venice tales ... which included being a nude live model, a Dominatrix, and a graffiti artist (her tag was a big "S").

Once she started dating a graffiti artist, she began spending a whole lot of time down at the Venice Graffiti Walls at the beach. One day she turned the corner and saw all of this paint strata hanging off the ends, and had a light bulb moment. She could make graffiti art that was three dimensional - and permanent! Jewelry. Made from the years and years of paintings (an estimated 15,000 layers in one necklace!) done by artists from all over the world in the ultimate upcycling. A whole giant section had fallen off and was going to be tossed in a dumpster by the city ... unless ...

Rich took home some big chunks of fallen paint and began experimenting. She even flew to Chicago to learn from the woman that created "Fordite" - jewelry material made from the leftover paint in the automobile industry! The first piece she made was a "V" for Venice. Of course. She began making dog tags, and grew more excited every time she revealed some new, one of a kind pattern from all the swirls of paint. Rich often thinks of the person the piece is meant for as she's creating it, saying, "I'm a Shaman. They speak to me." (The Venice has definitely taken her over after her initial reluctance.) From the early dog tags, the line has grown to include necklaces, earrings, rings, and frameable art pieces. The rings are my favorite, because the setting that holds the graffstone is made from recycled skateboard decks! Now THAT is the ultimate Venice gift. Wearable art from the creative vortex and heart of our town. I love it.

An organization called STP (Setting The Pace) currently maintains the Venice Art Walls, and Rich told me that their Bruno Hernandez and Stash Maleski of ICU (In Creative Unity) before him are the reasons that the walls are still there. There is a donation button on the STP site to help make sure that they are preserved as a place for free artistic expression, and Rich would also like to give back to the walls that she loves (and that provide her with materials) by seeing these jewelry pieces of hers help sustain the walls through their sales.

"It's Family," answered Rich when I asked her what Venice meant to her. "I felt like discovering this way to honor the walls was becoming one of the family, and I want to give back to the family." That's right.

For now, you can help her do that by purchasing one of her one of a kind Venice treasures at Animal House, In Heroes We Trust, and Maui and Sons on Washington Boulevard. Venicegraffstone.com will soon go live, and then everyone everywhere can have their own little piece of Venice history.

I asked Rich if she had anything to say to the people in closing, and she replied, "I don't have anything else to say that the walls don't say better." With that, we took a stroll down to the Art Walls right at golden hour, greeting old friends all along the way, and stopped to watch new art being created at the Walls ... where today's statement will be tomorrow's memory - perhaps around your neck.

Get your Venice Graffstone, and carry a piece of Venice with you for always.

Now Available:

Animal House
In Heroes We Trust
Maui & Sons - Washington Blvd.
Susan Rich if you see her around town!